New England Patriots 43-22 Indianapolis Colts - as it happened

It's only going to get harder for the Patriots going forward, which I guess is sort of how the playoffs are supposed to work. Still, a third straight AFC Championship Game appearance is a decent accomplishment in its own right. At this point, I wonder if other franchises are going to copy the Belichick playbook and start to deliberately injuring their starters and replace them with practice squad guys and random people they find at bus stations.

Okay, that's two Divisional Games in the books, with two more tomorrow. As always, the Guardian will be providing live coverage: I'll be liveblogging Carolina Panthers vs the San Francisco 49ers at 1:00pm EST/6:00pm GMT and then David Lengel we take you through the Denver Broncos vs the San Diego Chargers immediately following. Wow, that means I probably should shut up and get some sleep here. Thanks for following us throughout the day, especially everyone who contributed (sorry I couldn't use everything ). Ciao!

Unsurprisingly we watched the Good Andrew Luck and the Bad Andrew Luck, some jaw-dropping passes and some bad interceptions. Luck is going to be super-scary very very soon, and he already has a postseason performance for the ages in the comeback against the Chiefs.

They will play either the Denver Broncos or the San Diego Chargers. If you don't think that the TV networks aren't begging for a Broncos win tomorrow, you're crazy.

The game began with Alfonzo Dennard intercepting Andrew Luck and it ends with Alfonzo Dennard intercepting Andrew Luck. Turn! Turn! Turn!

Luck can't convert on second down and gets hit hard by Chris Jones the next time around. I'm going to assume that they don't punt on fourth down here.

So the Indianapolis Colts have a new set of downs, which would be great if they had enough time to really do anything with them. At this point we're just waiting for the inevitable victory formation.

Another punt, Another Touchback

This is all theater now. On the 20, Luck's first throw is incomplete, his second is to Fleener for eight yards, Fleener gets the first down on the next throw and we've hit the two-minute warning.

Blount gets pushed back three yards immediately afterward which isn't actual irony but may very well be Alanis Irony. Brady gets sacked on the next play and fumbles...

But Logan Mankins is there to smother it to maintain possession. It IS fourth down though so here comes Pretend Punter.

Absolutely methodical drive here. Ridley for 10 and a first down. Blount gets another three yard, setting a Patriots postseason rushing record (169 yards). New England takes a timeout, partly to make sure the tension between these two teams doesn't boil over.

An illegal block penalty is called on New England, pushing them back 10 yards to their own 16. Almost instantly it seems the Patriots are in a three down hole, Brady connects with Amendola for a fresh set of downs, while time is starting to be the enemy for the Colts. The Pats keep rushing, Blount and Ridley are the only ones getting the ball right now.

Oh never mind the whole "chipping away" thing, Blount unleashes a 30 yard run to Indy's 28.

I now have "Another kickoff another touchback" in my head to the tune of the Only Ones' "Another Girl Another Planet". So, the Colts start at their own 20 here. Fleener gets nine yards, but that's all the Colts get. Hey a third down stop, they can do that?

Email from Michael Aston:

Luck is still mouth and eye wearingly great,,,it's his second year…dude will be a legend...

Absolutely. There is no Patriots fan out there who thinks that this is over.

That's not a two-point conversion so I refuse to care.

This is fair.

The call on the field stands, that's a touchdown.

Ridley picks up an extra yard on first down, and apparently-gets in the endzone on his second attempt, but the officials are going to review it.

Meanwhile Darius Butler was injured on the first Ridley run.

The Patriots start at the 18th here, rather, his first throw? Incomplete. The next one though, Austin Collie (a short-haired breed I believe) makes it to the Colts' 3 yard line and a first down.

Luck's third interception of the game! Jamie Collins has it and brings it to the Indianapolis 19 before he's finally stopped. These last two drives haven't gone very well for Indy, that's my professional opinion.

I'm half expecting Tom Brady to be playing, like, nose tackle here. In any case, another touchback here, but it feels like it doesn't matter how many yards Luck has to make up for tonight.

Edelman returns McAfee's punt to the 27 yard line which will give the Pa-

Oh nevermind, Tom Brady gets the ball to Blount AND HE GOES OFF! 72 yard touchdown run!

And hey is that Brady holding the ball for the successful extra point? Yes

Brown gets the first down to start the fourth quarter, but he only gets one yard on his next attempt. Joe Vellano sacks Luck, whose next pass is incomplete. This has somehow morphed into a defensive battle, which is not what I was expecting a few hours ago.

Great punt here by Stephen Gostkowski, pinning the Colts at their 15, and then Kanorris Davis pushes Whalen back three yards, so that's the 12 yard line they'll be starting from, if my math is right. Brown runs four yards, but on that play Stanley Havill gets hurt.

New England starts on their 24, Brady throws a pass to Kenbrell Thompkins, it's incomplete and Thompkins is hurt on the play. Ridley gets nine yards but they just can't get James Develin over the line for a conversion. Punt time again.

Huge three and out for the Patriots, Luck gets sacked by Jamie Collins for a loss of eight yards and then he throws two straight incompletions.

I cannot even comprehend that last throw, if the Colts comeback here that's going to be legendary. Anyhoo, the Patriots respond by going 3-0 and Gostkowski comes back on the field, his interior monologue probably very "Dante from Clerks": "I wasn't even supposed to be punting today!"

35 yard bomb on the third play of the drive, Brazill brings it into the endzone and Gillette is in stunned, stunned, silence.

The Colts decide to start their drive with Trent Richardson which I have to assume was a huge mix-up, like he thought Richardson was T.Y. Hilton. He gets it right the next time, throwing a 46 yard pass to Hilton to get to New England's 35 line and then..

Holy hell.

Gostkowski's kickoff is a touchback so the Colts will start at their own 20. The Colts are now the ones who need a TD drive.

Ideas, anyone?

Ridley gets the two point conversion, I kinda love those (or hate extra points, to be more precise) and... And there's a bit of scrimmage on the field. Former Patriot Darius Butler gets dinged for unnecessary roughness and that's the first time in Butler's entire career that he ever did anything that benefited New England in any tangible way.

Ridley carries the ball for two, and Brady's next two passes are incomplete BUT there's pass interference on the defense. That brings them to the Indianapolis 5. Ridley gives his team 2 yards, Brady can't connect with anyone on 2nd down but on 3rd down Ridley plows himself into the endzone for a Patriots touchdown.

The Patriots keep chipping away with the running game, putting themselves in perennial third down-dom. On the Colts' 32 yard, on 3rd and 7, Tom Brady scrambles (Tom Brady scrambles?) and then gets the ball to Edelman for nine yards and a first down.

And Tom Brady was apparently inspired by Luck's thrown to Hilton last drive, a loooong long long pass to Amendola. 53 yards.

This is going overtime. I'm calling it right now.

In any case, the Colts punter McAfee kicks into the endzone, but Blount attempts a return that halts at the New England 12. Yeah not good.

Is it worse than Screech's?

Colts are at the New England 20, no wait make that that the New England 4 after a Fleener run. The Colts get one more yard but that's all they get, crucial red zone stop by the Patriots defense, but an Adam Vinatieri field goal turns this into a one-score game.

After that punt, the Colts start at the 37 yard mark, this is Example A of why punters are actually important. Great field position for Indianapolis. Donald Brown runs three yards, his next pass is incomplete and then on 3rd and 7 not only does the defense fail to make a stop, Luck throws a possible game-changer, a 40 yard completion to Hilton. Whoa.

The Patriots come out first, starting at their 20 after a touchback and... they went 3 and out before I can even complete that sentence. Not how they wanted to start things off here. Here comes Stephen Gostkowski: Punter.

Michael Aston:

I honestly think Bellicheck has been here too long, the disciplines we are used to seeing throughout out the three phases, is suspect throughout..maybe, the message is wearing thin..Not saying they won't win this particular game (they won't in my humble O')) but should they prevail, it will get ugly in denver...

I could not disagree more, considering the ridiculous number of injuries to the defense, the random players he has found plug holes, and the fact that the offense has survived after losing their top three threats... It's been impressive.

Now that's true love right there.

Pretty much everybody else has agreed with this about taking a safety. The good news is: We only have to deal with Dierdorf for another two quarters. How glass half full is that?

Big squander there. Vereen gets pushed back on 2nd down and Brady's throw on 3rd down, taking place after a Colts timeout, is incomplete and...

Is that Stephen Gostkowski? Apparently Ryan Allen hurt himself on that safety. The ball gets back to the Colts but a Brown run takes us to the end of the first half.

Give that interceptio'n to Dont'a Hightower. The Patriots start at their own 36 with about a minute and half to go, the kind of situation that Brady is fairly familiar with. Ridley goes on a 5 yard run and the Patriots take a timeout.

So it's 3rd and 10 on Indy's 28 yard line, but the Pats can't quite make the stop here, a pass to Hilton, in the game and apparently okay, gives them 16 yards. After a declined penalty on Indianapolis, Luck makes yet another conversion when he hits Whalen for 17 yards that gets them into New England territory and... There's another Luck interception, the Patriots get the ball back.

Whalen returns a punt for 16 yards, on first and ten Luck throws a ball that ALMOST gets intercepted. Game of inches this is. (Okay and also yards, those might be a bigger part of the game, but inches are big too.) The Patriots stop Dennis Brown for no gain and that takes us to the two minute warning.

Okay, this all went really bad. First the Patriots get hit with a delay of game penalty while lining up for the punt. Next, a wayward snap from Danny Aiken leads to a safety as the punter Ryan Allen swats away the ball. Could have been much worse for New England, but that's two free points for the Colts.

It's the All Blount show now. Brady, possibly thinking about working the clock with halftime suddenly in sight. Oh and he's also good at getting downs, he gets the Patriots to the 45 but he can't get them to the 49 yard line and that's a 4th down and w.

Blount returns the kickoff 22 yards to get to N.E.'s 25 yard line. Solid contributor in several different areas, just like Belichick likes.

Email from Jack Underwood:

It seems like Luck audibles on every single down. Either that, or he goes to the line, reads the defense, and then calls the play (for the first time).
Your thoughts?

I hadn't noticed, but you might have something there.

Stanley Havill gets his first touch of the day and gets an extra four yards but that's all the Colts get before finding themselves in a fourth down.

Worse news than that, T.Y. Hilton is apparently injured on Luck's third down pass.

The good news: An Adam Vinatieri field goal chips away at the New England lead.

Okay, Andrew Luck is officially on one of his frightening drives. The Patriots force him into a 3rd and 5 situation, but that's always the most dangerous position against New England. He connects with Whalen for nine yards and another first down. On the 22, they start going into no huddle.

Another touchback. (Oh yeah and the extra point was good, just assume the extra point is good unless I mention it.) Okay, the Colts start at their 20. Donald Brown gives his team 3 yards, Luck connects with Fleener for a long run, 29 yards to bring the Colts to midfield.

When talking to people from outside the area I basically just go with No We Don't Technically Live In Cambridge.

New England's threatening now, at the Indianapolis 25. After two incompletes to other receivers, Brady goes "screw it" and throws to Edelman again and hey shockingly that works out, he goes 13 yards for a first down. Ridley and Vereen get them a first down at the Colts' 2 yard line but they don't really need a new down there because Blount runs it in for the third Patriots touchdown.

Shane Vereen almost gets the other nine yards after that brief break. Blount just gets a first down. Almost to midfield here... and they get way past midfield when Brady and Edelman do their thing, their thing in this case being a 22 yard run.

After a penalty, New England start on their 25 yard line, Stevan Ridley and Shane Vereen combined give them enough yardage for a first down on their 37, Ridley gets them one tiny yard and that will take us to the end of the first quarter.

Well, the defense isn't as good as the Chiefs, but their offense won't stutter like what happened to Kansas City last week. So hard to say.

The Colts start at their 27 after the Patriots' punt. Luck throws incomplete to Da'rick Rogers, gets like two yards from Richardson, hey anything that isn't in the negatives is good for him, and then throws incomplete to Fleener. Another three-and-out.

Email from Michael Aston:

Luck is something else…wow….Nothing bothers him. After watching Brees fall apart earlier, to my eyes, Luck is an animal we not seen. He definitely keeps me watching.

Not going to lie, I may have a smidgen of a guy-crush.

And here the Colts get a 3-and-out, ending with Erik Walden sacking Tom Brady for a loss of five yards. Yikes. This could be a good one folks.

Another punt, another touchback.

Possibly, I'm done doubting that team, but don't be too hasty these Colts might be kinda good at coming back.

The Colts start on their 40 for the top drive, Donald Brown gets four yards and Luck's next pass is incomplete. Then, oh okay now THIS is the Andrew Luck that we were promised. A pass to Griff Whalen is good for 22 yards, which takes them to New England's 38. Next throw is a deeeeep ball to LaVon Brazill for an Indianapolis touchdown.

Third straight touchback from Gostkowski. The Colts once again start at their 20, the Patriots force Luck at 3rd and 3, but he makes his first first-down conversion of the game with a nine yard pass to Cody Fleener

Brady goes to Blount again, he only picks up a yard, but Brady throws to his Latest Binky in Edelman who bursts into a 25 yard run. On 3 and 5, Danny Amendola makes a spectacular catch to get the Patriots to Indianapolis's 7. Blount gets two yards on first down and hits the endzone on second down and just like that the Patriots have a two touchdown lead.

Blount, quickly becoming maybe one of New England's biggest offensive weapon, gets some yardage to set up a 3rd and 5 where Brady connects with Shane Vereen for a first down on their own 44.

That would be Tiquan Underwood and I think the problem was that his hide top fade was so amazing that it took up an additional roster spot.

Okay, there's some improvement on that drive. The Colts just go three-and-out rather than make a turnover thanks to some great defense on T.Y. Hilton on third down.

Richardson is like the Human Bad Luck Charm

Let's try this again. The Indianapolis Colts start at their 20 after another Touchback.

And on the very first drive, Andrew Luck throws an interception that Alfonzo Dennard takes in for a Patriots touchdown! Or not, the officials rule he was down before the goal. BUT THEY SCORE ON THE NEXT DRIVE ANYWAYS via LaGarrette Blount. That's a start there, isn't it?

And we're off Stephen Gostkowski kicks things off.

The Colts win the coin toss, they wisely defer and NO FOR THE LAST TIME I WASN'T KEEPING TRACK OF WHETHER IT WAS HEADS OR TAILS. I will forward all messages asking me for this information to Gamblers Anonymous.

A very common practice in the NFL is to sign players recently cut or let go by that week's opponents solely to take advantage of any knowledge they might have about their old team's playbook. I don't think I've ever seen a more blatant example than what the Indianapolis Colts did this week, signing Deion Branch, the wide receiver that was part of many of the "classic" Patriots teams. They swore it was because they saw something in him that could help them on the field. Well, oh hey, he's inactive today what a strange, unexpected development.

The Seattle Seahawks will be advancing and the New Orleans Saints are going home. Seattle defeated New Orleans 23-15 and my oh my they still very much look like the best team in the NFL.

I predict that it's going to be a close game, both Luck and Brady have had a lot of success late in games, so it may just come down to who has the ball last. I'm thinking that it's going to be decided by a field goal, in other words pretty much a coin-flip, so I'm just going with the home team here. (This has nothing to do with me blogging from the Boston area. I'm completely and utterly objective, as you all know.) I'm saying Patriots 34, Colts 31.

Of course I'm terrible at predictions, so I really should be asking you for them. You can send us your predictions, and really anything even remotely relevant, and we'll be using them all through tonight's game. You can tweet me at @HunterFelt or email Hunter.Felt.Freelance@theguardian.com.

I understand hoping for the second part of that sentence at least.

Thank goodness for Twitter, this would have been a pain to type out.

One of the strangest things about this week in NFL news has been the sudden appearance of professional wrestling legends. First their was controversy when Ric Flair pledged his support to the San Francisco 49ers and not his hometown team in the Carolina Panthers. Meanwhile, Hulk Hogan has pledged his support to the New England Patriots in a very Hulk Hogan-y way. What's the deal here? I have no clue, luckily my brother Travis, who contributes to the Daily Wrestle, broke it down for me:

Hulk Hogan seems to have some downtime after leaving TNA. So Santa with Muscles decided to shoot a video demonstrating his support of the New England Patriots in what appears to be his lovely restaurant, Hogan’s Beach, located on the pristine beach of Scientology city (atmosphere is very nice if you don’t mind paying a little too much for Hooter’s quality food). So, why is Mr. Nanny a Pats fan? According to his video, he is totes stoked because one of the players bought some Hulkster merchandise to display in the Patriot’s dressing room (he probably means locker room, but you have to forgive wrestlers for confusing dramas with sports because they’re kind of in between). The video itself plays as if somebody commissioned it, like the clearly wealthy Patriots management suddenly turned into a community college throwing money at a famous person who once took a course there to shoot a video for them to play at orientation. But none of these seem like real answers. So what really is the actual truth that necessitated this odd video? Well, that’s rather simple. You see, Hogan is practically an exotic lizard: he needs to be in the light for a certain amount of time every day or he’ll die.

So, Paolo Bandini is covering the end of the Saints/Seahawks game. I'd jump over there for a maybe potentially interesting ending?

So what can the Indianapolis Colts do for an encore? For most of last Saturday, it seemed inevitable that the Kansas City Chefs would be the ones moving on from Wild Card Weekend. Then, the Colts put together the second biggest comeback in NFL playoff history, perhaps best summed up by the ridiculous sight of Indianapolis quarterback Andrew Luck recovering his team's own fumble and staggering to the endzone for a touchdown. The Colts overcame a 28 point deficit to stun the Chiefs 45-44 and helped to write another devastating chapter in the depressing history of pro sports in Kansas City. Their reward for the improbable, emotional win? Hitting the road to face the New England Patriots in Gillette Stadium for tonight's AFC Divisional Game.

It's tempting to use this game to talk about this game in terms of the Colts/Patriots rivalry, but really that was a rivalry between Tom Brady and Peyton Manning. With Andrew Luck as quarterback, the dynamic feels different. It's no longer two contemporaries battling it out for the "Best Quarterback Of The Era" title. Having helped his team win a playoff game, the next step in Andrew Luck's development would involve beating one of the established elite QBs in a game with high stakes. I think a divisional game on the road against Tom Brady and New England head coach Bill Belichick counts.

The good news for the Colts is that they've going up against one of the weaker Patriots teams of the Bill Belichick era. The Patriots lost a few key players over the offseason, and then lost many, many more to injuries. Tom Brady's favorite targets of the last few years are Wes Welker (currently with the Denver Broncos), Rob Gronkowski (currently injured again) or Aaron Hernandez (on trial for murder). Luckily Tom Brady is still Tom Brady, so he's able to make the best use of less heralded offensive weapons like Julian Edelman and LaGarrette Blount. Of more concern is that New England have seen roughly 2/3rds of their defensive starters to injuries: Vince Wilfork, Jerod Mayo, Sebastian Vollmer etc. Then there's the late Brandon Spikes. Oh no, he's still alive, I mean he was literally put on Injured Reserved because for being late.

Can the Colts take advantage of New England's decimated defense? Can Tom Brady school his younger opponent? Are we in for more fourth-inning magic like we've seen from Brady and Luck all season long? Well, what do you think? You can send up your thoughts, questions, jokes, anecdotes of Colts/Patriots games from the past, or really anything relating to the NFL playoffs and we'll use them in this liveblog. Email them to Hunter.Felt.Freelance@theguardian.com or tweet them to @HunterFelt. Kickoff at Gillette Stadium is scheduled around 8:15pm EST/1:15am GMT, so we'll soon find out. In the meantime, I'll be back with an injury report, NFL updates and perhaps some pro wrestling talk. No seriously, it's relevant.